In this week’s podcast: • Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a church where the ministers compared homosexuality with Satan • HIV infections rates in the UK have declined dramatically since 2012 • Utah bans harmful ‘conversion therapy’ for minors • A male stripper in Atlanta sentenced to prison for killing his secret straight-married lover • Attending the 2020 GayVN Awards (aka ‘the Oscars of gay porn’) I chat with stars Dallas Steele & Brian Davilla • RuPaul announced to host Saturday Night Live • And a new docu-series on Apple TV+ explores how LGBTQ people made our way onto the TV landscape All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report
Vice President Mike Pence Vice President Mike Pence made an appearance at a National Adoption Month event held by the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday where he praised Donald Trump for proposing a rule that would allow taxpayer-funded faith-based adoption agencies to deny LGBTQ people child placement in their homes. The Washington Blade reports Pence told the crowd that he “couldn’t be more proud” of the rule he said demonstrates the Trump administration’s understanding of “the role that communities of faith play in adoption.” “We’ve reversed the rule implemented in the closing days of the last administration that jeopardized the ability of faith-based providers to serve those in need by penalizing them for their deeply held religious beliefs,” said the Vice President. “We will stand for the freedom of religion and we will stand with faith-based organizations to support adoption.” He also commended HHS Secretary Alex Azar and his staff for “promulgating the new rule that respects the freedom of religion of every American, but also recognizes the vital role that faith-based organizations play in adoption in this country.” Pence ended his remarks saying, “And I’ll make you one more promise: Child welfare providers will never be forced to choose between their faith and serving those in need — not on our watch.” The HHS proposal would reverse a regulation implemented in the last months of the Obama administration prohibiting recipients of federal grants from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Pence noted statistics that claim “four out of five families have pointed to faith and church support as a factor in successful fostering.” But what Pence failed to mention is that same-sex couples are “four times more likely to be raising an adopted child and six times more likely to be raising foster children than heterosexual couples,” according to AmericanAdoptions.com. “The Trump-Pence White House has proposed a horrific federal regulation that would permit discrimination across the entire spectrum of HHS programs receiving federal funding,” Human Right’s Campaign President Alphonso David said in a statement when the rule was announced. Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD, told Out, “Research has shown LGBTQ families provide the same kind of love, protection, and support as other families, and no child should be denied that kind of environment.” Ellis added, “The Trump Administration has once again demonstrated how they prefer to prioritize the gross work of anti-LGBTQ activists over the safety and well-being of our children.” (source: Washington Blade)
A group of Republicans who are critical of Donald Trump has released a new TV spot that calls out Vice President Mike Pence for looking the other way when foreign governments spend millions at Trump resorts and hotels. Since Trump took office, bookings by foreign governments at Trump hotels has skyrocketed. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Pence criticized Hillary Clinton for the Clinton Foundation’s acceptance of donations during her time as Secretary of State. Note: none of the funds donated to the Clinton Foundation went into Hillary’s pocket. All went to charitable organizations.
Today, Pence’s reaction to the ramped-up stays at Trump resorts is just, “Who cares?”
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Steve Raider (above) is giving you total lawn lounging. Talk about ‘splendor in the grass’… • Metro: In the upcoming big-screen iteration of Downton Abbey, closeted valet-turned-butler Thomas Barrow (played by Rob James-Collier) gets his own storyline offering emotional insight – joy and otherwise – into what it was like to be gay in the 1920s. The film opens in theaters September 20. • CNN: As far back as the 1990s, Vice President Mike Pence argued that homosexuality was a choice during his fight against local efforts in Indiana to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. • CNET: Miami-based porn website BangBros has offered an ambitious $10 million bid to rename the former American Airlines Arena as The BangBros Center or BBC should the company win the bid. • Instinct: SNL has hired its first-ever Asian cast member, Bowen Yang, set to join the venerable comic troupe this fall. • New Music: My fellow Syracuse University alum, John Duff, offers his latest music video, “Rich,” which mocks and celebrates pop culture’s love-hate obsession with those who are already rich and famous. “I like to think I’m holding a mirror to what it is that we do every day, as a culture – what we worship, how we consume, how we cope,” says Duff. “That’s where the visuals really aid in my storytelling.”
Some news items you might have missed: •Instagram: That time you fly across the world and wind up (surprise!) at Bear Week in Sitges, Spain, by happy accident with old friends. #goodtimes • CNN: The Supreme Court of the Philippines dismissed a request to legalize same-sex marriage in the country. The high court said in a statement it booted the case due to plaintiffs’ “lack of standing” and for “failing to raise an actual, justiciable controversy.” The high court acknowledged that the 1987 Constitution “does not define or restrict marriage on the basis of sex, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity,” but urged Congress to address the recognition of same-sex unions. • Bloomberg: The Trump Energy Department has reversed an Obama-era regulation requiring that light bulbs commonly used in recessed lighting and track lighting meet the same energy efficiency standards that effectively phased out the traditional incandescent bulb. The Energy Department said the change “does not prevent consumers from buying the lamps they desire.” The standards would have applied to roughly half of the six billion light bulbs in use today and would have saved consumers billions in energy costs and avoid millions of tons in carbon dioxide emissions.
There is only one reason @realDonaldTrump is rolling back efficiency standards for light bulbs. His guiding principle is that if Obama supported it, Trump opposes it
• Fox KTVU: Following the mass shooting in Gilroy, California, the city of San Francisco has formally adopted a resolution calling the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization. The resolution calls on other cities and government entities to make similar declarations. The resolution itself has no legal weight. • Associated Press: Defense Secretary Mark Esper approved the use of $3.6 billion in funding from military construction projects to build 175 miles (282 kilometers) of Donald Trump’s wall along the Mexican border. Pentagon officials would not say which 127 projects will be affected. • Washington Post: Michigan has become the first state in the nation to ban flavored e-cigarettes, a step Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said was needed to protect young people from the potentially harmful effects of vaping. She complained that e-cigarette companies are using sweet flavors, such as bubble gum and “fruit loops,” to hook young people on nicotine, with potentially long-term harmful consequences. • Reuters: U.S. grocery giant Kroger has announced they are joining Walmart in “respectfully asking that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores, other than authorized law enforcement officers.” • Twitter: Twitter had a field day after homocon White House spokesman Judd Deere tweeted Vice President Pence couldn’t be “anti-gay” because he had lunch with the openly gay leader of Ireland. As we all know, the former governor of Indiana signed a religious freedom law that was criticized as a pathway to legal anti-LGBTQ discrimination. He also endorsed a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage. Deere’s tweet was ridiculed by thousands, including Chasten Buttigieg, husband of Democratic White House hopeful Pete Buttigieg, who criticized the suggestion that dining with Varadkar meant Pence was not anti-LGBT.
I’ve sat at tables with people who would gladly deny me the right to marry, who openly support conversion therapy, and who adamantly believe being gay is a choice. Doesn’t mean they’re any less homophobic because we shared a meal. https://t.co/cECWvnFUUV
They think that having a “black friend” means they’re not racist or a “gay friend” is not a bigot. Tolerating us in public isn’t support… They’d happily reinstate Jim Crowe if they could and think we should go “back in the closet”.
Here for the ratio! And to make sure you’re aware that this is a trash tweet defending a person responsible for gay men dying from AIDS an causing an HIV outbreak in Indiana because of his hate. Shame on you. And yeah, I know you’re shameless.
Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday he was surprised by media criticism of his wife’s decision to teach art at a school with devout Christian beliefs, and said he’s gotten lots of practice in forgiving his critics.
He was speaking to the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian religious liberty organization, and ADF CEO Michael Farris asked him for advice on how to handle attacks on his faith and beliefs.
Mr. Pence said that as a politician he faces a lot of attacks, and had several pieces of advice. “No. 1 is, spend more time on your knees than on the internet,” he said. He also added: “Forgiveness is a great gift.”
I recently reported that Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to attend a campaign fund-raiser at a gay-owned club in Colorado.
As if it wasn’t enough that gay quislings were allowing their business to be used by the anti-LGBTQ politician, it seems Pence skipped out of town without paying the local police for the added security to the tune of $24,000.
The host has yet to step forward to pay the roughly $24,000 bill for increased security provided by local authorities — and the effect on taxpayers goes beyond Pitkin County, Sheriff Joe DiSalvo noted.
“We had a SWAT team from Garfield County here that I want to see get reimbursed. We had Carbondale officers here that I want to see get reimbursed. They don’t have this kind of money — I don’t have this kind of money,” DiSalvo said.
He estimated that Pence was in Aspen for less than 24 hours. During that time, the vice president headlined Monday’s $35,000-per-couple fundraiser at the Caribou Club and addressed the Republican Governors Association at its closed-door quarterly meeting at the St. Regis Aspen Resort on Tuesday morning. Pence did not speak to the general public.
“We had 64 total police officers on that assignment in the 20 or so hours that he was here, totaling 519 person hours,” DiSalvo said. “Out of those 64, 14 were state troopers, and we don’t have a responsibility to pay them. But the 50 other cops that were here are all on the county dime.
“I guess the whole thing is generally just somewhat disappointing to me,” DiSalvo continued. “You raise $700,000 in an hour, you should be able to pitch in to support the community that made you feel welcome.”
Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Lindsey Graham and other GOP officials visited one of the detention border camps.
Pence dressed like he was going to one of Donald Trump’s country clubs as the men there were locked in cages, calling for help.
It looks like he’s visiting an animal shelter – look at that body language. He then took to Twitter to say the detainees were getting, “humane and compassionate care” from CPB.
I’ve not found one report that he spoke to or asked any of the detainees how they were.
Rather than broadcast the full story, showing the compassionate care the American people are providing to vulnerable families, tonight CNN only played video of men in the temporary facility and didn’t play any footage of the family facility at all…
This image will go down in history. New video shows shows Mike Pence callously observing and turning his back on severe overcrowding of men in cages at a detainment facility in Texas.
This photo of Mike Pence and Lindsey Graham witnessing the concentration camps just before they praised the concentration camp staff will not fare well through the lens of history. pic.twitter.com/JuNjgyqI3l
• InstaHunk Steve in LA (above) makes baseball much more palatable, no? And – he has the good sense to attend a Yankees game 🙂
• The Gaily Grind: A Canadian man filmed himself tearing down and burning a neighbor’s Nazi flag, saying he took matters into his own hands because “authorities weren’t going to.”
• Vox: In the new book, Commander in Cheat, sportswriter Rick Reilly explores Trump’s complicated relationship with the game of golf, and herculean efforts he goes to lie about his scores, sabotage his opponents, and generally defraud the sport. Sport reveals, in part, who we are. Golf reveals the cheat that is Donald Trump.
• LGBTQ Nation: Mike Pence whines that America has ‘little tolerance’ for Christians if he can’t be anti-gay.
• Gay Star News: A makeup company is marketing a new brand specifically to ‘macho men’ with black packaging and the name ‘War Paint.’ They say male skin is ‘different’ from female skin, and therefore men need their own manly brand of makeup.
• Instinct: Mr. Ratburn of PBS’ Arthur is gay, and married.
• InstaHunks Alex Abramov and Brett Miles hug it out after exploring NYC’s ‘The Vessel.’
• Paleontologist Francesc Gascó is giving you serious beard and biceps (above).
• Democratic presidential hopeful Mayor Pete Buttigieg told CNN today he doesn’t have a problem with Vice President Mike Pence having religious beliefs, but added, “My problem is when those religious beliefs are used as an excuse to harm other people.”
Michele Bachmann has never seen “a more biblical president” than Trump: “We will, in all likelihood, never see a more godly, biblical president again in our lifetimes.” pic.twitter.com/xnqCZRaq5f
• Out Canadian singer-songwriter Mathew V has released the music video for his latest single, “Catching Feelings.” Directed by Gabriel Adelman, the video follows Mathew V through an extraterrestrial adventure set to an extremely danceable track.
“‘Catching Feelings’ can be counted as one of the first evocatively sun-soaked jams of 2019. Toned, smoothed out & soulful.” – EQ Music
His debut album, The Fifth, was released in the spring of 2018 and charted in both Canada and the US. The album earned critical acclaim from press outlets such as Nylon and Billboard, marking Mathew as an artist to watch.
His catalogue is now approaching 10 million online streams. Hit play below.
In this week’s podcast: • Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a church where the ministers compared homosexuality with Satan • HIV infections rates in the UK have declined dramatically since 2012 • Utah bans harmful ‘conversion therapy’ for minors • A male stripper in Atlanta sentenced to prison for killing his secret straight-married lover • Attending the 2020 GayVN Awards (aka ‘the Oscars of gay porn’) I chat with stars Dallas Steele & Brian Davilla • RuPaul announced to host Saturday Night Live • And a new docu-series on Apple TV+ explores how LGBTQ people made our way onto the TV landscape All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report 
